David Rovics - New Orleans lyrics

Everybody knew that it could happen The likelihood was clear The future was coming And now it's here They had to fix the levees Because otherwise they'd break On one side was the city Above it was the lake It was in the daily papers In bold letters was the writ What would happen When the Big One hit But every year they cut the funding Just a little more So they could give it to the Army To fight their oil war In National Geographic And the Times-Picayune They forecast the apocalypse Said it was coming soon Preparations must be made, they said Now is the time It was years ago they shouted Inaction was a crime They said the dikes must be improved And the wetlands must be saved But Washington decided Instead they should be paved Because malls were more important Than peoples' lives So put some gold dust in your eyes And hope no storm arrives New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans Years and years of warning No evacuation plan It was just if the waters rose Just get out if you can There were no buses No one chartered any trains There was no plan to rescue All of those who would remain All the people with no money All the people with no wheels All of those who didn't hotwire One that they could steal Thousands and thousands of people Abandoned by the state Abandoned by their country Just left to meet their fate New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans And the people died And then they died some more They drowned inside their attics An army of the poor An army of the destitute Who couldn't get away And the world will remember These sad and awful days When people shouted from their houses Dying on their roofs When people came to find them They were turned back by the troops They died there with no water They died there in the heat They were shot down by the soldiers For trying to find some food to eat New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans And now the city is in ruins A ma**ive toxic sea Scattered through the nation Half a million refugees Here we are In the richest country on the earth Where the color of your skin Determines what your life is worth Where oil is the king Where global warming is ignored Where the very end of life Is the place we're heading toward Where it's more than just a metaphor The flooding of the dike And if we don't stop this madness The whole planet will be like New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans